Author: Jet

Jet Wine Bar will be hosting three wine tastings and bottle sale events to help you celebrate the holidays. From a “Blends are my Friends tasting to a “’Tis the Season to be Bubbly Bottle Try & Buy” we have something for everyone! See tickets and more information below.

About: Take a trip back in time for wine! What do Dave Brubeck, King Béla I, and Spain share in common? All have milestones associated with December 6th – the day of our tasting! Join Jill Weber, our owner and Wining Archaeologist, for wines from Hungary, Spain, Austria, California, and Texas!

About: Why use just one grape? Join Jeff Holden from Breakthru Beverage PA for a guided tasting of 6 red blends from around the world: Bordeaux, Corbieres, Priorat, Tuscany, California’s Central Valley, and Imathia, Greece. From the traditional to the unexpected, we’ll taste just what makes these red blends our friends!

‘Tis the Season to be Bubbly “Bottle Try and Buy” Hosted by wine expert, Giacomo Di Lisi, of Soilair Selections and Jet’s owner and “Wining Archaeologist”, Jill Weber.

Date: Sun, December 18th Time: 2:00 – 4:00 PM

About: Drop by Jet’s Lounge on Sunday, December 18th, any time between 2-4 to explore an assortment of bubbles! We’ll have white, pink, red, spumante, crémant, prosecco, champagne… We’ll have wines for all occasions – your favorite meal, a big date, or New Years Eve! Try first, then buy bottles to-go!

Jet Wine Bar will be hosting three wine tastings and bottle sale events this November. From a “Blends are my Friends tasting to a “Thanksgiving Wine “Buy & Try”’ we have something for everyone. See tickets and more information below.

About: What did the Pilgrims drink at the first Thanksgiving? Not wine. But what wine might they have drunk? That is what we are here to find out. Jill Weber will guide you through 5 wines and the circuitous path of the Pilgrims.

About:Drop by Jet’s Lounge to explore wines perfect for Thanksgiving. Not sure which wines to pour with your fabulous (or, at least, big) meal? No problem. $5 gets you in the door to taste as many wines as you’d like. Try first, then buy bottles to-go!

The Grape:Pinot Grigio is native to France (as Pinot Gris) but has a second home in northeast Italy and Slovenia, which share a border. From that area, the grapes have great minerality and acidity, and produce clean, crisp, zippy wines.

The Wine:Mansus Makovec Sivi Pinot r Dobravlje Vipava Valley Slovenia. The estate is found in the Vipava Valley, roughly 20 kilometers from the Italian border. The wine is made with 100% organically-grown Pinot Grigio, and is “natural”. It is crisp and acidic, with some nuttiness, some apple, and soft, ripe cherry. It has some tannin and heft for the red-wine drinker, plus great, chilled minerality for the white-wine drinkers.

Fun Fact:Orange Wine? It is chemical compounds found in the skin of grapes that help determine their color. Generally speaking, “red” grapes have reddish skins and “white” grapes have whitish/greenish skins. Those colors are not found in the juice of most grapes, so making a wine of color depends on allowing the skins to remain in contact with the grape juice for some period of time; the darker the desired color, the longer the skin contact. “Orange” wines are those made with “white” grapes, but with prolonged skin contact, which causes the color to darken more than normal (for a white wine). The resulting depth of color depends on the length of skin-contact, but also on the color compounds found in the grapes. Those found in Pinot Grigio, which is a so-called “color mutation” of the red pinot-noir grape, result in darker, amber-colored wine with prolonged skin contact.

The Grape: Chardonnay. This is definitely one of the best-known white grapes around and is grown, basically, everywhere. It is a fairly “neutral” grape whose flavor in wine is heavily driven by terroir: the soil, the surrounding flora, the water, etc. Despite that neutrality, the flavors typically include white-fleshed fruits like pears. It is frequently made into still and sparkling wines, and champagne made solely from chardonnay is called Blanc de Blancs.

The Wine: Dadivas Chardonnay, Lidio Carraro, Brazil. This wine is made in Rio Grande do Sul, where the estate maintains a “Purist” philosophy of grape-growing and wine-making; in essence, they adhere to minimal intervention. For this wine, 100% Chardonnay grapes are fermented and aged 8 months in stainless tanks. The wine is redolent of daisies and pears, with more pear and Granny Smith apples on the palate. It has a great, creamy texture and a long-lasting finish.

Fun Fact: The Rio Grande do Sul is at Brazil’s southern tip, and borders both Uruguay and Argentina. While Italian immigrants are at the forefront of the country’s wine industry, the native inhabitants were the Guarani. Guarani hold an animistic view of the world, in which plants and animals have the faculties of humans. One Guarani belief is that good spirits live in flowers, which get transported by hummingbirds… maybe into the grapes!Pairing: Try it with our red beet pickled eggs.

Joan of Arc lived a short, eventful, and ultimately tragic life in the 15th century AD. She was famous for her piety, her seemingly brilliant military strategy, and the witty repartee she exhibited at her heresy trial. She is also famous for her death, which came at the tender age of 19, when she was burned at the stake. She was declared a martyr, beatified, cannonized, and is a patron saint of France. We’ll follow her history as we always do… circuitously, and with wine.

The Grape(s): Mourvedre, Grenache, Cinsault… There are many grapes in this blend, but what links them? Winemaker Bo Salling specifically wanted to make a Provence-style red, and he sourced grape varietals from Texas’ High Plains that are quite at home in that land between the Rhone Valley and the Mediterranean.

The Wine: Yellow City Cellars Dead Flowers Rosé High Plains AVA Texas is the only wine the producer makes. It is a bold (think Bandol) cherry and strawberry stunner, with great mineral, and tinged with a Texas garrigue of wild herbs.

Fun Fact: Bo Salling worked with winemaker Kim McPherson to make this wine. Kim is the son of pioneering Texas winemaker, Clinton “Doc” McPherson; the latter was among the first to plant grapes around Lubbock in the 1960’s, and opened the Llano Estacado Winery in 1976 (with Bob Reed). There are now over 70 vineyards planted to commercial production in the High Plains.

The grape:Pinot Grigio is a popular, widely-planted grape. It likely originated in France – as a mutant of Pinot Noir. It is generally called Pinot Grigio in Italy and California, Pinot Gris in France and Oregon.

The wine:Scarbolo Pinot Grigio Friuli Grave DOC is made from 100% hand-harvested Pinot Grigio. It is aged on the lees for 6 months, which gives it a creamy texture and added depth. The wine has the crisp minerality and fullness of fruit for which the area is known, along with almonds and fuller, honeyed notes. This delightful wine is from the famed Scarbolo estate, found in Friuli Venezia Giulia, near the border with Slovenia.

Fun fact: Scarbolo is located in the town of Lauzacco, in Pavia di Udine. Lauzacco lies roughly equi-distant from Forum Iulii (Cividale del Friuli) and Aquileia; the two towns succeeded each other as primary Roman centers in the 1st half of the 1st millennium AD. The strategic region has episodically been part of the Roman, Lombard, Byzantine, Venetian, Lombard-Venetian, and Italian Kingdoms, Empires, and Republics.

The Grape:Pais is a vigorous, red grape that was once Chile’s most commonly-grown varietal. While it was long associated with plonk, it is now being produced into quality wine; like the one found here.

The Wine: Pais PipeñoCacique Maravilla, Chile is made with 100% organically-grown hand-picked Pais, from vines planted in 1766 – or 10 years before the birth of America! Fermentation is done in open tanks with natural yeasts. The wine is unfiltered. The wine is light-bodied, juicy, tannic, and decidedly rustic. Find all the wild herbs and fruits!

Fun Fact: The history of Pais in Chile is significant, and dates to the Spanish conquistadors and missions of the 15th century. The vines brought to the New World by those colonizers gave rise to North America’s Mission grape, Argentina’s Criolla, and Chile’s Pais.

Pairing: Very food-friendly, try it with gouda, deviled eggs, or our steak salad!